Millette Green ’03, sociology, former Lady Retriever
Annual Fund Supporter: Athletics

“UMBC prepared me for the real world. The university created a diverse community, challenged me academically and instilled in me the necessary discipline to be successful. It is always important to give back to whatever helped you to become the person that you are. My motivation to give to UMBC is to help the next person have the same experiences I once had.”

Share your own giving story here.

Millette Green ’03, sociology, former Lady Retriever
Annual Fund Supporter: Athletics

“UMBC prepared me for the real world. The university created a diverse community, challenged me academically and instilled in me the necessary discipline to be successful. It is always important to give back to whatever helped you to become the person that you are. My motivation to give to UMBC is to help the next person have the same experiences I once had.”

Share your own giving story here.

Click on the photos and links below to hear from two UMBC students, Ben D. and Brandon M., about why scholarships are so very important in their lives. Originally published in 2009.

Student Stories: Ben D.

Student Stories: Brandon M.

On a recent weekday afternoon, junior Jayneé Jones met Anita Maddox Jackson ’80 for lunch at the Skylight Room at UMBC. The two greeted each other as friends not only because Jones is the grateful recipient of a scholarship endowed by Jackson, but because of the background and interests they share.

Both women grew up on the Eastern Shore and both study – or in the case of Jackson, studied – health administration and policy at UMBC. It’s a match made in scholarship heaven.

Seeing them together, it is clear that Jackson’s intent as a donor has been realized.

“I just wanted to form-fit my scholarship to me and my interests,” said Jackson, director of economic development at BGE and past president of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors. “I know how difficult it was for my family to pay for my books. And I knew if I ever had an opportunity to help a student who was coming from a similar situation, I would do it.”

UMBC offers numerous opportunities for donors to tailor their gifts to reach students of all sorts. Just as Jackson’s endowed scholarship is given annually to a student from the Eastern Shore who demonstrates a commitment to the advancement of minorities, other specialized scholarships make meaningful connections between donors and students.

A group of donors who endowed the Esperanza Scholarship, for instance, recently made their first award presentation to junior information systems major María José Viera Cuéllar, a native of Bolivia. The award presentation was attended by nearly forty people.

“This event provided an opportunity for donors to see firsthand the positive impact their generous contributions have made in the life of this deserving student and will make to future students committed to the advancement of minorities especially of Hispanic or Latino descent,” said Stanyell Bruce, Associate Director of Alumni Relations.

In the case of Jackson and Jones, there’s clearly a connection that goes beyond what was stipulated in Jackson’s scholarship application. “It’s more than the money,” said Jones. “It’s about making connections and networking. That’s the best part…getting to know Anita.”

Originally published Fall 2009

When Leslie Walker-Wilson ’74 and ’76 M.A., psychology, recalls her days as a student at UMBC, she thinks of the gorgeous plot of land the University sits on and taking 8 a.m. classes to ensure that she could get a good parking space—memories that even the newest UMBC students will share.
“I didn’t really appreciate what I had then, studying under a tree in spring or in the library on the winter evenings,” she says. “Things are so hectic now.” When Walker-Wilson says hectic, she means it. She’s the Assistant Superintendent of the Division of Accountability and Assessment in the Maryland State Department of Education.
“I attribute a lot of the successes I’ve had in my professional life to the good education I received at UMBC,” said Walker-Wilson, who decided to make a planned gift to UMBC’s Department of Psychology because of the solid foundation it provided for her life.
Walker-Wilson started her studies at UMBC as an English major, but then she took a psychology course and sensed her destiny.
“English was something I loved,” she says, “but I could see psychology as a career. I loved all of the professors in that department – they were all wonderful, bright, people who made us think.” The professor’s ability to make students think is something that is critical for Walker-Wilson, who views learning as the great equalizer.
“You can be rich or poor, male or female, etc. but if you have an education, you can go anywhere and do anything,” she says. As far as Walker-Wilson is concerned, UMBC is a great place to get an education because the school really cares about the whole individual.
“[At UMBC] it isn’t just about the classes you take, the grades you get and the credits you accumulate, it is about preparing you to be a contributing citizen and have a successful career,” she says.
Because of everything that Walker-Wilson got from her time at UMBC, she decided to make a planned gift to the University that will support the Department of Psychology.
“Providing for UMBC in my will is another way that I can make a bigger gift that I may not be able to afford now. The people who benefit may not know who I was or anything about me, but I can still leave a positive mark on their lives,” she says. “What greater way is there to leave something to the world, even if it is a very small part?”
Originally published in September 2010.

When Leslie Walker-Wilson ’74 and ’76 M.A., psychology, recalls her days as a student at UMBC, she thinks of the gorgeous plot of land the University sits on and taking 8 a.m. classes to ensure that she could get a good parking space—memories that even the newest UMBC students will share.

“I didn’t really appreciate what I had then, studying under a tree in spring or in the library on the winter evenings,” she says. “Things are so hectic now.” When Walker-Wilson says hectic, she means it. She’s the Assistant Superintendent of the Division of Accountability and Assessment in the Maryland State Department of Education.

“I attribute a lot of the successes I’ve had in my professional life to the good education I received at UMBC,” said Walker-Wilson, who decided to make a planned gift to UMBC’s Department of Psychology because of the solid foundation it provided for her life.

Walker-Wilson started her studies at UMBC as an English major, but then she took a psychology course and sensed her destiny.

“English was something I loved,” she says, “but I could see psychology as a career. I loved all of the professors in that department – they were all wonderful, bright, people who made us think.” The professor’s ability to make students think is something that is critical for Walker-Wilson, who views learning as the great equalizer.

“You can be rich or poor, male or female, etc. but if you have an education, you can go anywhere and do anything,” she says. As far as Walker-Wilson is concerned, UMBC is a great place to get an education because the school really cares about the whole individual.

“[At UMBC] it isn’t just about the classes you take, the grades you get and the credits you accumulate, it is about preparing you to be a contributing citizen and have a successful career,” she says.

Because of everything that Walker-Wilson got from her time at UMBC, she decided to make a planned gift to the University that will support the Department of Psychology.

“Providing for UMBC in my will is another way that I can make a bigger gift that I may not be able to afford now. The people who benefit may not know who I was or anything about me, but I can still leave a positive mark on their lives,” she says. “What greater way is there to leave something to the world, even if it is a very small part?”

Originally published in September 2010.

Few days in a person’s life that are truly unforgettable; others we carry with us for our entire lives. In a way, Edie Windsor and Fizza Gulamali-Majid share just such a moment – the days they found out their children had been accepted into the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at UMBC.

“I will always remember when [my son] Andy called to tell me he’d been accepted,” says Windsor. “I knew that this was the place for him.” Founded in 1988, the program has graduated more than 800 students, most going on to earn graduate degrees from institutions like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Carnegie Mellon.

That unforgettable moment grew into a lifelong commitment for both Windsor and Gulamali-Majid, both of whom give back through donations and their work with the Meyerhoff Parents Association because of the enormous impact the program has had on their children.

“It helped shape the person my son has become,” says Windsor, whose son received his M.D. from University of Maryland School of Medicine in May and is now an Emergency Medicine Resident at University of Maryland Medical Center.

Although their scholarships lifted a monetary burden, the benefits that Windsor and Gulamali-Majid’s children received are unquantifiable: a sense of personal pride and a community that cheers them on in their endeavors and celebrates their accomplishments. When their children became Meyerhoff Scholars, the mothers explained, they joined a family, one that reaches far beyond the years students spend at UMBC.

“A remarkable trait we’ve seen in every person involved with the Meyerhoff Program is an incredible sense of the importance of giving back,” says Windsor. “They know how much they’ve been given, and they want to help others.”

Windsor and Gulamali-Majid will be the first to tell you that they know how fortunate their children have been, and they—along with the rest of the Meyerhoff family—want to be sure that other students have the same opportunities.

“My daughter wouldn’t trade her experience in the Meyerhoff Program for the world,” says Gulamali-Majid, whose daughter is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in translational biology and molecular medicine at Baylor University in Texas. “It became a second family to her and to us.”

Originally posted in 2010.